Daily Scripture Threshing for Saturday, February 5, 2022
Today’s Text: Zechariah 7:1-14
Key Verse: Zechariah 7:5 (NLT): “Say to all your people and your priests, ‘During these seventy years of exile, when you fasted and mourned in the summer and in early autumn, was it really for me that you were fasting?”
Many years back, 4 members of the National Youth Corps came to serve in my hometown. Strangely, they all have many things in common. All 4 were coppers, male, tall, hefty and their names start with R — Reproc, Reni, Raymond, and Reuben; and they all have ravenous approaches to food. My dad was happy to accommodate them in our home. To be in the Corps, it was assumed that each of them must have graduated from university/ies. So, as they walk about in their uniform, we proudly called all of them “Corper Shun.” However, dad later discovered that Reproc was not a Corper. He dressed daily and went in and out with them; and did all the necessary things that a Corper does, but as soon as father got asking questions, he begin to falter; and father realizes Reproc was not a Corper. He was actually a dropout from school. He put on a facade to externally come across as a “Corper,” while internally he was not. He had to live a lie daily.
Unfortunately, many Christians put on that poisonous facade by pretending repentance and religion, forgetting that God truly knows the heart. Indeed, like Reproc, they are a direct reverse of their names. In our text, the Jews thought that they could bye God over by daily persistent fast and religious motions, but they were wrong. Soberingly, the same is the unfortunate reality of our generation. Pretense is now the order of the day. Many of us put on a facade to come across as fabulous believers, but the reality is pretense or pettiness. Just about anything — lies, hates, pride, and conceit — is possible or acceptable as long as you dress it in a religious facade. Through successive ages, God’s word frowns at dissimulation, proselytism, lukewarmness, and hypocrisy. Let us put off the facades of Churchianity and turn to God with genuine spirit.
Quote for the Day: “True religion is never made up of fasting, praying, religious activism and motions of worship. These are dangerous facades and we must put them off.” (Simon Olatunji)
Prayer: Dear Lord, help me to put off religiosity in which godliness is neglected. Let my heart be rent and not my garment. Stir a genuine soul-deep, not skin-deep revival in me—in Jesus name. Amen.
With all my Love and Prayers,
Rev Simon Wale Olatunji, Ph.D.
Your Darling Bishop (DaBishop)
For further enquiry and free spiritual help, visit or write:
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simonolatunji@simonolatunji.com
[Daily Scripture Threshing is a devotional guide of The House of Prayer Evangel Church USA distributed for free use by individuals, small groups, families and Christian churches]
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